Get Smart - Review

"Get Smart"


If you're a smart moviegoer, you won't go into "Get Smart" expecting the 2008 film version to be anywhere near as good as the iconic TV series. That's no knock on the movie, just praise for Mel Brooks and Don Adams' original spy spoof series. Quite frankly, I wasn't expecting anything other than another fairly formulaic summer comedy out of "Get Smart," but I was pleasantly surprised. This isn't a comedy classic or a great film by any means, but it's an entertaining film that succeeds mainly due to its cast. There's absolutely no one else in Hollywood that could play Maxwell Smart as perfectly as Steve Carell. From the timing of his delivery to his facial expressions, Carell nails the part, and he's very funny (no surprise there). Watch him smirk while improbably dodging a room full of lasers, or try to intimidate the evil Siegfried and his assistant while delivering the movie's funniest line (Chuck Norris fans, rejoice!) Carell elevates the movie from okay to pretty good because - well, he's really funny.
The plot of "Get Smart" is as follows: Smart is an excellent intelligence analyst for USA intelligence agency CONTROL, but hopes to be a field agent like his idol Agent 23 (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson). When rival organization KAOS attacks CONTROL headquarters and subsequently learns the identities of all CONTROL agents, The Chief (Alan Arkin) promotes Max to field agent, pairing him with super-fit, super-hot Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) as the pair travels to Russia to research KAOS's development of nuclear weapons. As expected, hijinks ensue.
The chemistry between Carell and Hathaway is excellent here. You probably won't believe the obvious eventual romantic subplot between them, but as a spy team they work. Hathaway effortlessly turns in a great performance here as the serious foil to Carell's comic antics. Johnson also has his moments as super-suave Agent 23 and Arkin is wonderful as the Chief. The problems with the film certainly don't stem from the cast. "Get Smart" works pretty well as a comedy, but as a spy movie it doesn't always roll. The action set pieces are unspectacular and often too over-the-top to work, and as previously mentioned, the romantic subplot seems forced. The movie also tries to make comic relief out of Bruce and Lloyd, played by Masi Oka and Nate Torrence. Hey, look!...the two nerds are played by an Asian guy and a fat kid! Couldn't have seen that one coming! As fate would have it, a direct-to-DVD movie "Get Smart's Bruce and Lloyd Out of Control," is set to be released in a few weeks.

The Verdict: Get Smart is hit-or-miss at times, but thanks mainly to Carell, it makes it by that much.
2.5 / 4 stars